RIYADH — The annual inflation rate in Saudi Arabia declined for the second month in a row to 2.3 percent in July 2023, compared to 2.7 percent in June, marking the slowest pace in more than a year. Inflation in Saudi Arabia continues to decline since the beginning of the year, when it recorded 3.4 percent in January, according to the data released by the the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT). The report showed that the rise in prices is mainly due to an 8.6 percent jump in the prices of housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, and a 1.4 percent increase in the prices of food and beverage. "Looking forward, we believe that the inflation rate would continue to decline during the remainder of this year to between one and 1.5 percent on an annual basis," according to James Swanston, an Emerging Markets Economist at Capital Economics, specialising in coverage of the Middle East and North Africa. In a research note, he said that the inflation would hover around that rate in 2024. The GASTAT report showed that inflation in July was slowest since June last year, and it was lower than Capital Economics' forecast of 3.1 percent and the median forecast in a Reuters poll of 2.4 percent. The prices for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels rose 0.3 percent in July while compared to June, when they rose year-on-year by 9.1 percent whereas prices of food and beverage prices increased 0.4 percent against June. The prices of clothing and footwear decreased by 3.9 percent in July on an annual basis and by 0.8 percent on a monthly basis while home furnishing and equipment prices declined 2.5 percent on an annual basis and 0.3 percent on a monthly basis.
